I'll describe the study. I'm sitting on the loveseat, which is pink velvet with throw pillows. One pill is pink and says, She Leaves a Little Sparkle Wherever She Goes. That's a theme throughout the house. One is green and says, You Are Magical. Another is pink and says Merry Everything. The last is white with a painting from the Etsy shop A Thing Created: a girl with pink hair, wearing black and white, holding a book, and standing at one end of a library wall of bookcases, inset lights, and cushioned chairs. On either side of the loveseat is a small white end table with two shelves. One holds magazines (I'm so behind!); the other holds boxes of pens and a white basket full of more pens. The double window is behind the loveseat and looks out on the porch. It catches the morning sunlight. Next to each end table is a tall white bookcase. Both hold unread books. One holds a variety of books with decorative boxes on top (receipts, doll clothes, art supplies). One holds short story collections and various pen displays and has two Robin Woods dolls at the top: a dark-haired princess with a silky blue gown and a navy velvet cape with silver lining and trim--Mom gave me the doll and made the clothes for Christmas one year when I was younger than ten--the other doll is a Cinderella with a full trunk and wardrobe. She's wearing the pink gown she made herself. In front of the loveseat is a turquoise velvet ottoman with a turquoise and gold tray.
The wall to my left is largely an opening from the foyer. The the left of it is a small canvas, light blue with So Many Books--So Little Time in lettering by Risa Rodil. Beneath that is a hook for Josh's Camelbak. Our yoga mats are rolled up in the corner. The boys' backpacks usually end up there too. Above the entry from the foyer is a dark wooden sign that says Librairie: Rare Books & Fine Prints, 227 Rue Cler, est. in 1801. We found it at Target long ago. To the right of the entrance is a teal metal bar cart that I use for books, especially library books. Above that is a cluster of Josh's hats on hooks. In the center is a purple poster I made on Shutterfly many years ago. It says Read: Books Rock, and it has photos of Josh, tiny Oliver, and I interacting with books. Our weights are in the corner (yes, the study doubles as a gym).
The wall facing the loveseat has a mint and peach canvas that says Be in Love with Your Life, another Target find. Next is a small accordion doorway to the kitchen. Josh has a chin-up bar there, and above it is a Charlotte Hornets locker room sign. Next is the huge desk Josh's grandfather made for him long ago. It's dark wood with gold drawer pulls for eight little drawers. On the desk is a two-foot faux white birch tree with white lights. Centered above the desk is a lavender Joy Laforme canvas. It shows a night sky and purple, pink, blue, and gray skyscrapers of New York City with a street full of taxis, red brake lights bright. You'd swear life is going on beyond some of the glowing windows. Clustered around the canvas are various sports-team pennants; a purple magnetic marker board; a small canvas in white, pink, and gold that says, She Leaves a Little Sparkle Wherever She Goes; a quotables card ("Life is a beautiful, magnificent thing." --Charlie Chaplin); a very old watercolor self-portrait of mine; three collages I made between the ages of eighteen and twenty (rainbow, pink/green, and purple); and a personalized print from A Thing Created with six of my favorite books: Jane Eyre, The Phantom of the Opera, Writing Down the Bones, Dangerous Angels, Sense and Sensibility, and Never Let Me Go. Next to the desk is Josh's dark wood, open bookcase, which currently holds nonfiction books I've not read yet in rainbow order. Above it is a canvas with pink French books on display as if in a sidewalk stall.
The wall to my right is probably my favorite. In the center is the white secretary desk my mom and stepdad gave me for a birthday present several years ago. I decorated it with pastel crystal drawer pulls. Atop the desk is a pink vase of faux pink and purple hydrangeas and a lovely Madame Alexander Scarlett O'Hara doll in an elaborate green Christmas dinner gown. Above the desk is an ivory canvas with a gold chandelier dripping crystal. I'd like to have a chandelier painting (since, in most cases, I can't have a real chandelier) in every room. To the left of the desk is a skinny, pink and white five-shelf bookcase. On it are nonfiction books I haven't read in rainbow order. Above the bookcases is a pink Joy Laforme canvas of a pink New York City residential building with flowering trees and a dense, bright garden. Taxis line the street, but the overall effect is pink. Next to the canvas is a little note from long-ago Josh: You are the most beautiful girl. It's on notepaper with a Mary Engelbreit image of a boy with dark, curly hair riding a crowned seahorse. I looked at that image while I was in labor, counting details in my head during contractions. Off to this side is a wheeled desk chair--white wood and bright green upholstery. To the right of the desk is another skinny pink and white bookcase, holding unread fiction and poetry in no particular order. Above this is a painting we call "The Pink Lady." It is an antique Josh bought at Sleep Poet's antique store with a gift card from my mom. In a gilt frame on ivory and pink matting is a woman in a pink dress and fur stole. Her auburn hair is in a bun, and she's holding a bouquet of pink flowers.
That is our study, the room in which we spend most of our waking hours at home together. It's busy, but it's bright and beautiful--just what I like: a fanciful display of both of us.
